End November, Begin December

One of my most long-awaited things came the last day of November: bookshelves enough to store a good many of our books.

Phil, knowing how eagerly I've awaited them, powered through the pain for probably about six hours to put them together, including putting in the electrical outlets below them.

I have always had books in boxes: even in Boulder, I kept Sonlight Cores boxed up for the time I would use them. To actually unpack my entire book collection was a lengthy process, and one I relished. I finally got to sort the entire collection by Sonlight Core; non-Sonlight books are divided into young child, middle grades, and mature. I sorted by sequels, by art or history. Saturday night I got off to a good start, but my floor is littered with piles, waiting for companion volumes.

On the first day of December, I actually made a list of new recipes I would like to try. (One of my most happy unpackings was a three-ring binder of recipes I like; I have missed that binder for years.) I went shopping and found all the ingredients I would need.

On December 2nd, I made sure to at least open all the boxes of books still in the storage trailer. Some of them are Phil's books (engineering or otherwise); some are agriculture books, which we aren't keeping on the Ikea shelves; some are books I haven't read yet, and, as such, do not belong on the Ikea shelves. But the rest joined their companions in the piles, waiting.

As I peeked in the last few boxes, I found table extensions. Now we had a table we could all fit around comfortably. And though we don’t have dining room chairs yet, we have one chair from the original dining room set, four folding chairs, and a spelt bucket, so the whole family gathered around the table for dinner. We sat and prayed before we ate, and then we enjoyed cast iron pizza, which was a delicious, quick, thin crust version.

I feel a bit like I've been exhaling stress for the last two weeks. I hadn't wanted to think about how very restrictive the single-toaster-oven, no-dining-table, small-fridge life had been. But I can think about it now. In retrospect, that was tough.

On December 3rd, I was up at 5am, ready to keep sorting books. Getting my life in order is so satisfying, I didn't even need a nap all day.

I made pumpkin bread for breakfast for the boys, and fancy friend rice for Phil. It all tasted so wonderful.

The weather was pleasant, so I moved more boxes of books, and rearranged things so that we could extricate the triple bunk bed. Phil disassembled it, and the boys helped carry it down to where we reassembled it.

We do plan for the boys to have real beds one of these days, with real sheets, but that is another expense and another design-build project for Phil, so I don't think it will happen this December. And rather than have the boys sleep on mats on the floor of the playroom, it is much nicer to have them stashed in beds.

To celebrate, we got out the flannel quilts that were given right before we moved and never used, as I didn’t want them to get dirty. That was a fun addition to their beds.

With the floor mats removed, the boys cleaned up the Legos. It took some time, but they worked with good cheer. And then the sleep room and play room were both dry mopped and clean. Ahh.

I made meatloaf for dinner and everyone had seconds and everyone liked it. Will wonders never cease, as my Mom would say.

And the bookcase, though not done yet is looking really good. I have too many books for the space that's left, but I'll figure it out.

On a completely different note, Abraham's drawing skill has been improving dramatically lately. His drawing of Calvin and Hobbes in a tent made me smile: lanterns, snack, comic book, bread, tuna, pickles, can opener, gun....